Satanic Hindrances Challenged 3/98

Satanic Hindrances Challenged

By Mark I. Bubeck

All true believers see the great need of revival. As I see it, revival comes when the Holy Spirit moves with mighty power upon believers whose hearts have been made ready through repentance, prayer and expectant waiting upon God. The Holy Spirit first touches the believer with His refining holy fire and His breath of power, filling the heart with overflowing worship, joy and humility before the true and living God. The blessings of revival invariably overflow and spill out upon the world, resulting in great conviction of sin and repentance toward God on the part of the lost.

I understand revival to be that which is authored by God in His grace. It means that God draws near with His power and holiness until sin becomes exceedingly sinful and sinners become broken before God. Revival is the grace which came to us through the incarnation, the cross, the resurrection, and the coming of the Holy Spirit, all being poured out upon us in large measure and sudden visit. It means that whole areas of people and even entire nations begin to come under the mighty moving and conviction of God. God moves in with His supernatural intervention and stops man in his downward plunge.

Revival ought to be the great cry to God on the part of every believer for this hour. Some argue that we are too near the second coming of Christ to expect revival. The time of the apostasy is upon us, they say, and we can only expect things to get worse and worse while we feebly hold on and endure to the end. Such a view must be balanced by our Lord's promise to pour out His Spirit upon all flesh in the last days. The fruit of revival is always in God's will and plan during this age of grace. It is never the will of God for His church to be apathetic and powerless.

Even the Laodicean church in Revelation 3 is offered revival by our Lord. After rebuking them for their spiritual lukewarmness and for their state of not knowing that they were "wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked," he offers them revival. In verses 18-20 we read,

"I counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous, therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me."

Warfare for revival involves aggressive use of all we have in Christ. It means that I seriously war against my flesh with spiritual weapons. It means that I overcome the world through my union with Christ and the total employment of my faith. It means aggressive use of the weapons of our warfare against Satan and claiming our God-granted mightiness to the pulling down of strongholds.

Warfare Prayer for Revival

I would submit as a pattern for study and use, a type of warfare prayer for revival:

Heavenly Father, I praise Your name for the grace that has come to me through the Lord Jesus Christ. I rejoice in the victory which You have provided for me to live above sin and failure. I come before You in confession and to plead Your mercy over my own sins, the sins of other believers, and the sins of our nation. Our nation stands before You, deserving Your wrath and judgment. I confess the sins of lukewarmness, apathy, and worldliness on the part of believers.

I acknowledge before You the wickedness of our society and its deserving of judgment. I stand in to confess the awful affront to You which is represented in the drug epidemic, the drunkenness, the moral rottenness in the entertainment field, the crime increases of our land and the lack of moral character in national leadership. I ask forgiveness and mercy for the religious sins of liberalism and the too-often harsh, bitter criticism and contentious spirit of fundamentalism. I grieve with You over the awful rise of interest in the occult and the open worship of Satan by wicked, deceived people. May You judge not this nation with wrath and fury as upon Sodom, but judge it with a mighty outpouring of conviction of sin. May sinners groan under the burden of their guilt until the people cry out as did those at Pentecost, "What shall we do?"

I praise Your holy name that there is sufficient measure of grace through the Person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ to answer this cry. I plead the blood of the cross and the power of the resurrection against the wretched sins and rebellion of the hearts of men against God. I wait for the Holy Spirit to lead and prepare and bring us all to revival.

I recognize that Satan and the kingdom of darkness over which he rules have plotted and strategized against revival with relentless effort. Satan has built carefully his kingdom to oppose all that is holy and good.

In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I smash and pull down all of the strongholds that Satan has erected to hinder revival. I pray the focus of the mighty victory of the cross and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ directly against Satan's plans to hinder revival. I pull down his strongholds of religious loyalties that blind and bind so many. I pull down his strongholds of prayerlessness and carelessness with the Word of God. I claim back for the Lord Jesus Christ the ground Satan is claiming as a means of hindering revival, and I affirm that Satan's plans were fully defeated through the cross and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. I pull down all of Satan's plans to divert revival when it comes. I call for the Holy Spirit to grant wisdom and discernment to the leaders of revival chosen by You to lead. May this revival for which I pray be greater than any that has ever come before. May it serve to purify the church and prepare it for the coming of our Lord. May it bring multitudes into the fold all over the world.

Loving Lord Jesus Christ, You invited us to come and buy of You that which we need for revival. Give us the gold tried in the fires of testing brought by Your sovereign power. Give us the white raiment of Your purity as You live Your life in us. Grant us the eyesalve of the Holy Spirit's anointing to see spiritual truth, to retain it, and to apply it in practice. I open the door to Your Lordship, dear Saviour. I invite You to come in to me personally and into Your church with a fresh visit and to be the sovereign Lord You are, that we all might fellowship with you in the deepness of your love. I ask this all and bring it before You with praise in the merit and worthiness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Are you praying warfare prayers of this type for revival? May God move upon all of our hearts to do so.

Search